Toward a Materialist Environmental Ethic

What Lies Beneath the Surface? A Case Study of Citizens’ Moral Reasoning with Regard to Biodiversity

“…In recent years ethicists have started to focus on the fact that in reality there is often a huge gap between held values and behaviour, i.e. between words and deeds (Heyd, 2003;Peterson, 2006). Hence, criticism has been raised that environmental ethics should not limit itself to focusing on proper ideas and values, but also include why these ideals are rarely followed in practice.…”

“…Hence, criticism has been raised that environmental ethics should not limit itself to focusing on proper ideas and values, but also include why these ideals are rarely followed in practice. Peterson (2006) argues that there is a need to go deeper, to understand that people can embrace different and sometimes conflicting values at different levels of their identity. Some of these are hardly articulated, but are instead implicit and deeply rooted in our culture.…”

“…Thus, the mechanisms identified in this study could be seen as both cognitive strategies to reduce ambivalence and as instances where more basic values outweigh, for example, ecocentric values. The view about the human responsibility to control nature could for instance be rooted in the underlying value that Peterson (2006) call 'uncritical anthropocentrism'. This belief in human superiority over nature is deeply held in the western world, and is therefore implicit in our thoughts and actions, and could be seen as a part of the very foundation of our identity as human beings (see also Kirkham, 2006).…”

Holthaus, Gary: Learning Native Wisdom: What Traditional Cultures Teach us About Subsistence, Sustainability and Spirituality

“…Reichel-Dolmatoff uses the term equilibrium to capture the dynamism that exists between the indigenous cultures that comprise the subject of his study and their habitats and means by this something different than achieving balanced or harmonious relationships, which are often envisioned as rather static relations. 3 For further discussion of the gap between values and practices specifically related to environmental ethics see Peterson (2006). This is the challenge that Holthaus puts before his readers.…”